Oku — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Went to Oku for my girlfriend’s birthday (5/3/21). Just the two of us on a Monday night. It wasn’t terribly busy, but they said they had to seat us inside because the three open tables outside were reserved. Waiter Nick was a little slow to greet us, but we didn’t wait too long. Ordered a bottle of wine and the Korean cauliflower (which is a little spicy and excellent). Went on to order two rolls and two plates of sashimi all at Nick’s suggestion (thanks Nick!). But here is where the issues begin. Apparently, we were given the wrong menu, we had an outdated one from days earlier, so the prices were wrong. However, the prices were only off by a few dollars. No big deal right? The bigger issue is that the menu itself is very confusing and feels a little like a trick. According to the waiter and manager (after we received our bill and questioned it) there are two parts to one section of the menu, one for nigiri and one for sashimi and the prices for the fish are meant to reflect the difference. However, the menu is set up this way: 14 Toro - Tuna Belly 38 12 Hon Maguro - Blue Fin Tuna 30 Etc. (see picture of the menu) To our surprise the numbers next to the fish are not actually their prices. The numbers on the left are for the nigiri and the price on the right is for the sashimi for BOTH FISH on the line. That fact was not explained to us and caused quite a bit of confusion when it came to figuring out the bill. None of this would have been that bad if they had apologized and done the right thing of giving us the expected prices. We wouldn’t have ordered the second sashimi in the first place if we had known the pricing set up as we were already full. If they had done the right thing, we would happily return to the restaurant, but they didn’t and we won’t. Finally, when ordering the rolls we asked if we could get the Tuna roll regular instead of spicy, and it turns out that it costs two dollars extra, but this isn’t on the menu. In the end, a nice night ends with a blip of frustration all over multiple screw ups with a...

Came here a few months ago and enjoyed my experience. Had some family visiting from out of town, and thought it’d be a great place to have lunch. We had booked a reservation online for a party of 4. When we arrive, we get seated at a table for 2. When clarifying that we had booked the reservation for 4, the gentleman had declined and said that’s not what it said on his end. We inquired approximately how long it’d take to accommodate a party of 4 (although we shouldn’t have to convene, he should’ve came up with a solution). After showing him the reservation on our end that it was a party of 4 we had booked, he mumbled a few words and just stood still. After expressing how upset I was, and that we would just find lunch elsewhere, there wasn’t any remorse, regret, or ounce of sincerity after, which is why we ultimately left. I didn’t feel comfortable being served in a restaurant where there was such a LACK of basic hospitality. When I had called later to speak to someone, it was the General Manager that had picked up and whom I had dealt with prior, Enrique. As opposed to listening to my frustration and why, he was short and very defensive, and stated that we just left and that he was gonna move some tables around to make it work. My problem is that it could’ve been communicated in a much more elevated manner, and to just listen. Why would I want to be serviced with someone combating me from the get go? What’s the point of booking reservations in advance if they’re just going to fight you when you arrive, and then give attitude afterwards, especially from the General Manager of all people. All in all, wish them the best with their business, and hope they are a bit friendlier...

I’m a bit shocked at all the high reviews here. We saw all the high ratings and figured since we were staying a block away we had to try it.

We were seated 40 minutes late (we arrived 10 minutes late in their defense), but the reasoning for it being 40 minutes was they gave our table away. It made no sense to me personally as we had called prior to let them know we were running late, so why give our table to someone else when we showed up within a normal grace period?

What my rating really came down to were 2 things, the food is mediocre and the people working there seemed like they could care less that we were customers.

I don’t expect a lot when I go to a restaurant but I’d appreciate acting like you care about your job. Once we sat down after waiting 30 minutes I pointed out that one of the small serving plates was sticky/dirty, and the waitress didn’t even apologize about it.

We over ordered, and the waitress didn’t even drop a hint of a warning that “Hey, this is actually kind of a lot of food”. We had never been there before, we weren’t familiar with portion size. We ended up having a ton of leftovers that we just couldn’t finished and could have easily done without.

All that said, the food was pretty bleh. We ordered what ended up being a lot of food and it all came out in under 20 minutes, which in my opinion says something about how they’re cooking it. Likely frozen. I’d just avoid this...